NEWSLETTER: FASHION & SUSTAINABILITY NO. 2

This bi-weekly newsletter aims at people that are interested in sustainability, textiles and fashion – like fashion companies & CSR managers, NGOs, trade unions, journalists, researchers, students of sustainable fashion and many more. It presents a collection of links to intersting news issued during the last two weeks around „fashion, textiles and sustainability“.

Some highlights for this issue:

News on WORKING CONDITIONS had a strong focus on the People’s Tribunal in Cambodia which took place at the beginning of February; RFID & data security problems was an issue in Germany, child labour etc.

Regarding TRANSPARENCY you can read an inspiring interview with Bruno Pieters, the founder of the probably most transparent company in the world.

ENVIRONMENT reports that Nike tried waterless dyeing, and some news on upcycling.

CONSUMERS & MARKETING reports again indicate that consumers want sustainable clothes & that sex sells (no real news, but an interesting story about Abercrombie). SLOW FASHION looks at Orsola de Castro, the founder of Estethica and at a new „swopping“-trend.

COTTON brings TE’s outlook for 2012 & some market reports.

You find reports about FAIRS in Berlin, New York, London and Biofach in Nürnberg – and news about REPORTS on child labour, nanotech, label-evaluation…

SCIENCE news with interesting articles on scaling up CSR & private / public regulation by UNRISD & ITC etc. Finally, a JOB offer and a lot of dates to save – and much more below…

If you have any interesting news for the newsletter, please send us an email: news (at) netzwerkfairemode.com. Kind regards NETZWERK FAIRE MODE & KernKommunikation

WORKING CONDITIONS

Cambodian People’s tribunal: Between 5. & 8.2. various workers’ organizations conducted the Cambodian People’s Tribunal to hear witnesses about the working conditions & living wages in factories and decide about the situation. More than 300 witnesses were listened to. The Tribunal asked factories to raise wages.

Cambodia garments „tribunal“ turns up heat on big brands
„A panel of international and local judges on Wednesday called on garment factories in Cambodia to urgently increase employees‘ salaries and pressed big international clothing brands to do more to improve working conditions.“

Yangon, company grants wage increase to striking workers
„Employees of the, Chinese-owned, Tai Yi shoe company after days of strike succeed in getting a wage increase from 75 to 100 kyat per hour (approximately 11 cents). No change to bonuses for those working 12 hours a day for 26 days a month. Strike sparked over non-payment of vacation days for the Lunar New Year“

TRANSPARENCY

The German Interview Magazine conducted a wonderful interview with former head of design at Hugo Boss, Bruno Pieters. Pieters founded the company „Honest by“ that has extrodinary demands regarding its own transparency.

Textile pollution high on agenda — again
„A new consultation document on the joint brand roadmap to zero toxic discharge and the benefits of waterless dyeing were the main talking points at a well attended sustainable textiles seminar run by MADE-BY last week in The Netherlands.“

The Ecologist meets… Orsola de CastroThe designer and Estethica founder chats to Ruth Styles about upcycling, showcasing new green talent and why eco-design has earned its place at the top table of British fashion

Peter Utting, Darryl Reed, Ananya Mukherjee-Reed (2012) Business Regulation and Non-State Actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development? Routledge. 346 pages http://bit.ly/zkwwqHThis volume assesses the achievements and limitations of a new set of non-state or multistakeholder institutions that are concerned with improving the social and environmental record of business, and holding corporations to account. It does so from a perspective that aims to address two limitations that often characterize this field of inquiry. First, fragmentation: articles or books typically focus on one or a handful of cases. Second, the development dimension: what does such regulation imply for developing countries and subaltern groups in terms of well-being, empowerment and sustainability? This volume examines more than 20 initiatives or institutions associated with different regulatory and development approaches, including the business-friendly corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda, ‚corporate accountability‘ and ‚fair trade‘ or social economy.

ITC: The interplay of public and private standards. Literature Review Series on the Impacts of Private Standards – Part III http://bit.ly/z0DjkPPart three of a series of four papers synthesizes the literature related to harmonization of, and interdependencies between public and private standards. It looks into the ways in which governments could engage with private standards to impact their legitimacy and significance in the market and provides examples of complementarities between public and private standards, and the harmonization efforts made in this area.